


Us, Together, Whole

by DarkScales



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: (only a little angst! and fluff right after), Alternate Universe, Fluff, Four Swords Summer Swap 2020, Gen, Light Angst, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26343262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkScales/pseuds/DarkScales
Summary: The library was dim.Or: a year after the defeat of Vaati and Ganon, Vio tries to bring Shadow back to life, Red goes ghost hunting, and Shadow doesn't really know what's going on but is doing his best anyway.  Somehow, it works out.
Relationships: Red Link & Shadow Link, Red Link & Vio Link, Shadow Link & Vio Link, Vio Link & Red Link & Shadow Link
Comments: 18
Kudos: 82





	1. Vio

**Author's Note:**

> My Four Swords Summer Swap piece for [tereasakarr](https://tereasakarr.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. Thank you so much to [imaginefourswords](https://imaginefourswords.tumblr.com/) for hosting the event!

The library was dim.

Vio blinked, surfacing from the haze of obscure spellwork he’d fallen into, lifting his head and grimacing when his neck cracked. It was dim, he realized, because his lamp had nearly burnt out, reduced to a tiny flame sputtering valiantly over a puddle of wax. Looking around, he realized he could barely see the bookshelves, low light reducing them to vague, looming shapes in the darkness. 

How long had he been here? Too long, it seemed, as his body took the opportunity to remind him how much it Did Not Like sitting hunched over a desk for hours. When he straightened up, his spine cracked in more places than was probably healthy at his age, and he was pretty sure that if he rolled his shoulders hard enough, he could get his sternum to pop even louder. Satisfying, but also a sign that he had, once again, lost track of time to a mildly worrying extent.

Sighing, Vio pushed his chair back and stood. Stretching resulted in a cacophony of snaps, cracks, and pops as his joints protested their movement, and when he flexed his wrists, he could feel the stiff pull of muscles threatening to cramp. Even his toes made rather alarming noises when he curled them hard enough. 

“Oh, you’re finally done!”

Startled, Vio whipped around, hand flying to where he usually kept his sword at his hip. It wasn’t there, though, his sword wasn’t there and his bow wasn’t on his back and all he had was a tiny knife in his boot because this was the library not the training grounds— 

And then he relaxed, because he’d completely forgotten about Red.

…Hold on. He’d completely forgotten about Red.

“Did—did you stay the entire time?” Vio blurted out, because apparently he was more tired than he thought and his brain-to-mouth filter had disintegrated. “It’s been  _ hours. _ ”

Curled up in a chair by a window, a little ways behind the table where Vio had been working, Red grinned sheepishly. Now that Vio was paying attention, it was clear that Red had just woken up, his hat folded in his lap and creases pressed into the side of his face. Sure enough, he had to cover his mouth against a massive yawn before replying, straightening up in his seat.

“Yeah, but I think I fell asleep after about twenty minutes,” Red admitted. Uncurling himself fully, he slipped out of the chair and stretched, joints popping nearly as loud as Vio’s had. “Guess I must’ve been tired.”

Vio winced. “Sorry. You didn’t have to stay up with me last night.”

Red laughed. “It’s alright, I wanted to. I’m just not used to it, that’s all.” He ran his fingers through his hair and put his hat back on, then straightened the hem of his tunic. “How often do you stay up that late, anyway?”

For a moment, Vio pondered his answer. He knew that the truth wouldn’t be what Red wanted to hear, but at the same time, the Links didn’t hide things from each other. Especially not Vio.

“Most nights, these past few weeks,” Vio admitted, gaze sliding away from Red as he turned to tidy up his notes. Bookmarks were placed and books were closed, notes were organized and pens were gathered. “Don’t worry about it, though. I don’t need much sleep.”

An ominous pause. Then, from behind, Vio heard Red say, “ _ Most nights? _ ”

Without turning around, Vio sent up a brief thanks to Nayru that Red didn’t have half the temper that Blue did, or even Green. Affecting a deliberately casual air, he shrugged, continuing to tidy up the table. “It’s really not a big deal. Like I said, I don’t need much sleep.”

Behind him, Red made a worried noise. “Vio, that’s not healthy! You still need more sleep than  _ that! _ ”

“No, I don’t,” Vio said, still not turning around, because the bruises under his eyes were tellingly dark and he didn’t want to give Red any ammunition. He could feel how slowly he was moving, exhaustion sinking into his bones, weighing down his body. Usually, he could track in the back of his mind the ebb and flow of his energy levels throughout the day, but now, they felt stuck at ebb, the edges of his vision going spotty and blurred when he moved too fast. It definitely wasn’t the worst he’d ever felt, but it certainly wasn’t the best, either.

He couldn’t stop now, though. He was so close to a breakthrough, he could feel it. And then, then— 

“Vio!”

Vio blinked, vision wavering, hands braced on the table for balance. Red stood beside him, gripping his arm, clearly concerned. When had he come up? When had Vio’s balance gone all wobbly? 

Damn. This wasn’t going to help his case about the sleep thing, was it.

“I’m fine,” he said, straightening as he gave Red a reassuring smile. “Just got a little dizzy for a second.”

“That isn’t  _ fine. _ ” Red didn’t let go of his arm, and when Vio glanced at him, his brow was furrowed and his mouth downturned unhappily. “Vio, you’re exhausted! You need to take a break!”

Vio shook his head and turned away to finish tidying up the table. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because—”  _ if I stop I’ll lose the trail, if I miss next week’s moon I’ll have to wait another full cycle, every extra day it takes me is one day more he’s gone, it’s my fault he’s gone, I have to make it right,  _ “—because I just, I can’t. I’m sorry, Red, but I can’t stop now.”

Predictably, that answer did not satisfy Red. “I’m not asking you to stop completely,” he said, tone softening, but still tense with worry that did nothing to ease the knot of guilt in Vio’s gut. “Just, maybe take a break? Doesn’t have to be a long one! But you’re exhausting yourself, Vio, and you can’t keep it up. You know that.”

“I can’t,” Vio repeated helplessly. “I—there’s no  _ time, _ Red! I found a ritual that might help, but it needs to be performed on a new moon and it requires a wishbone blessed by the Great Fairy of Flame. There’s no way I could get to her on time, she’s ten days away, so I  _ need _ to find a substitute. Either that or wait a full moon cycle, but it’s already the end of autumn and I don’t think Zelda’s going to let me spend almost three weeks on the road this close to winter. There’s no time for me to take a break!” 

Red winced, apparently at a loss for words. Vio should’ve been vindicated by that, but, mostly… well. He was tired, he was so, so tired, and at that moment, just the thought of making his way down to the kitchens for a quick meal before collapsing into bed felt like an impossible task. If there weren’t any leftovers from dinner, he’d have to either cook or settle for bread or fruit or something, because the dinner hour was long past and he didn’t want to bother the cooks. And  _ then _ he’d have to get from the kitchens to the knight’s quarters and goddesses, Vio simply did not want to move.

He couldn’t stay in the library forever, though. Even he could acknowledge his limits, for all he’d been pushing them lately. He had to keep reminding himself that he couldn’t risk becoming exhausted enough to botch a ritual or miss some crucial piece of information, because that would only prolong his search. Or, worse, cause some irreversible damage that could ruin his chances of bringing Shadow back forever, and then everything would be for nothing.

Vio sighed. First things first—he’d finish packing up his notes and organize his books, then, when that was done, he’d focus on getting down to the kitchen and acquiring food. Baby steps. He could manage that much, at least.

Without allowing himself to think on it any further, Vio started moving. The books could stay on the table, at least; he’d had free run of the library ever since proving to the new librarian (the old one had fled during the siege the previous year and refused to come back) that he was responsible enough around the books. His distinctive purple tunic had no doubt helped, too. His notes, though, he would take with him. Maybe if he looked them over one more time before sleeping, the right connections would be in there, and they’d magically snap themselves into his brain overnight or something. 

…Ha, and cuccos were harmless. Vio paused to give himself a mental shake. He must’ve been  _ really _ tired if that was the direction his thoughts were taking, now.

It couldn’t hurt to skim his notes one last time before bed, though. Who knew, maybe a miracle would happen. 

Red fell into step beside him as they left the library, expression still tight with worry. “Vio,” he said, “this isn’t sustainable. You know that, right?”

Vio swallowed, finding himself reluctant to meet Red’s eyes. “It’s fine. I can handle it.”

“You keep  _ saying _ that.” Red actually sounded frustrated, an uncommon enough occurrence to make Vio hide a wince. “But this is wearing you out, can’t you see it? We’re worried about you! I know the others aren’t here right now, but they’ve been noticing it too, believe me. At least let us help or something? Please?”

Huh. Red hadn’t asked him to stop, that time. Or even to slow down, like Vio had expected him to. 

Still, Vio hesitated. He didn’t want to burden Red or the others with this. Shadow had only sacrificed himself because of how Vio had befriended him, a connection he’d chose to value beyond Vio’s subsequent betrayal. Goddesses only knew why, because Shadow had been more than intelligent enough to realize that their friendship had been founded on false pretenses from the start. Regardless, that made Shadow’s death his responsibility, and, as such, bringing Shadow back was his responsibility, too.

“Vio.” Red was in front of him, now, blocking his path, and a part of Vio’s mind noted how lucky it was that this corridor was essentially deserted at this time of the night. “Look, we want Shadow back just as much as you do. He’s a Link, so he’s one of ours, and that hasn’t changed. But you don’t have to figure it all out yourself. Just tell me how to help, and I will. And I know Green and Blue will help too once they’re back!”

Vio didn’t doubt they would. The thing was, though, Vio honestly wasn’t sure what they  _ could _ help with. At this point, all he could do was keep researching, because his last attempts had failed and he wasn’t yet at the point where he had the supplies for another try. And none of the other Links quite had the head for long hours of book work like he did, which was usually fine because they all had their strengths, but in this case? It made things a bit difficult in the help department.

Instead of explaining all that, though, Vio’s exhausted brain decided it would be a good idea to blurt out, perhaps more despairingly than he’d like to admit, “Got any miracles hidden in your hat or something, then?”

Red laughed, but it sounded more like a reflex than real humor. “You know what I mean, Vio.”

“…Yeah. I know.” Closing his eyes, Vio took a breath, attempting to center himself. It only half worked, but half was better than none, and at this point, he’d take it. “Sorry. I’m just a bit tired.”

Red pounced on this. “Which is precisely why you should let me  _ help. _ Look, I know I may not be as useful in a library as you—” Red did try, to his credit, but his attention span wavered easily and often, “—but I can do other things! Like, uh, carry books? And finding stuff? When you figure out a substitute for that fairy-blessed wishbone, I could go get it!”

“Assuming I manage to figure out a substitute at all,” Vio sighed. He was thinking about it, though, and… he had to admit, Red had a point. What Vio had been doing really wasn’t sustainable. “Alright, fine. How about this—right now, I’m still at a pretty much just bookwork stage of research. But, if you wouldn’t mind, could you take care of my other duties? Just the ones around the castle, and only if you have time.”

Red lit up. “Oh, sure! That’s, mainly archery training for the new recruits, right? And some other stuff for the steward?”

“Mainly the archery training, yes,” Vio replied, a weight that he hadn’t realized was there lifting from his mind. “I’ve occasionally helped check the books for the steward, but that’s more of a monthly meeting than a daily one. There’s something else, though.” He closed his eyes, mentally running through his list of tasks, and dredged it up from the depths of his mind. Damn, he’d nearly forgotten all about it, which was probably a sign of how tired he was. “Ah, yes. A few of the servants—I think Gotter was the one to bring it up first, you know, from the kitchens?—anyway, they’ve been hearing weird noises at night…”


	2. Red

The most immediate thing that Red could help Vio with, Red was informed, was this: rumor had it there was a ghost in Hyrule Castle.

Personally, Red thought it was more likely to be some small animal, a sleepwalker, or even just a person who really, really liked midnight snacks than it was to be a ghost. Not that he didn’t believe in ghosts, considering what he and Blue had experienced in the Temple of Darkness, but if there really was a ghost in the castle, he knew the odd occurrences would be much worse. Worse like peoples’ souls getting sucked out or turning up drowning in despair, not mildly irritated because food was going missing and their things were disappearing or moving around in the night. 

Still, though, Red couldn’t help but shiver, remembering cold stone and haunting spirits and the sick, lead-weight feeling of despair in his gut. He’d literally been unable to do anything but curl up on the floor and despair, chained down by the bone-deep certainty that nothing would ever be right again. There’d been no point in even trying, he’d thought, and if it hadn’t been for Blue… 

_ No! Don’t think about that! _ Red shook his head to knock out the dark thoughts, gripping the Fire Rod for security. He focused instead on the memory of heat, of light, of how he and Blue had worked together to force the spirit out of the shadows and destroy it. There’d been that heart-stopping moment when Blue was swallowed, but he’d only taken advantage of that to blast the spirit apart from the inside, the Four Sword blazing brilliant in his hands.

After surviving that, Red was certain he could survive whatever was causing these ghost rumors in the castle.

It sucked that he was investigating this alone, though. At the moment, the only other Link in the castle was Vio, but he wasn’t in any shape to be ghost-hunting. Not when he was working himself to exhaustion, to the point where he spent every waking moment in the library or out on a research trip, searching endlessly for a way to bring the last Link back. 

Red completely understood, honestly. He wanted Shadow back, too! They all did! But Vio, Vio had taken Shadow’s sacrifice the hardest of them all, and Red was becoming increasingly worried about how far he was pushing himself in order to fix what he’d apparently decided was his mistake. He wanted Shadow back, yes, but not at the cost of Vio.

Red sighed. He wished that everyone else was here to help. Without the others around, he felt perpetually off-balance, acutely aware of the empty spaces they usually occupied. He kept turning around to tell Green about things like the adorable puppies one of the hunting hounds had just had, or going to the training grounds to find Blue for a spar, or heading towards Zelda’s study with another flower to add to the ones Green kept giving her. Only, he kept faltering halfway through, belatedly remembering their absences.

Blue was out on a week-long patrol with a few of the younger knights, making the rounds of the kingdom’s borders. Green was far in the opposite direction, rooting out a few stubborn groups of monsters who’d started to raid farmers’ livestock and trample fields. Given that it was harvest season with winter coming on, this held particular urgency. Even Zelda had gone to manage some new trading venture with Holodrum in a port town, taking their father and several senior knights as guards.

Once again reminded of how alone he was, Red bit back a sigh. Logically, he understood that with two of the Links, the princess, and the lead knight all away, the castle needed to keep  _ someone _ high-ranked in clear visibility, but it still sucked. Red didn’t like when they were apart, had never liked their separations. Everything just felt too empty, too quiet, without the others.

Ugh, he really had to stop thinking about this. Soon enough, everyone would be back, and then life would go back to normal. 

Before that, though, Red had to catch this ‘ghost,’ which meant he had to get back to work.

Standing hidden in an alcove normally filled with sacks of flour, Red surveilled the kitchens. They were as empty as they’d been hours before, which didn’t exactly do wonders for his growing boredom, but he took that as a good sign. Nothing happening meant no ghost, and with luck, the rest of the night would pass just as uneventfully.

Hold on. Were those shadows in the corner growing thicker?

Red peered at a patch of black, squinting as he tried to gauge whether or not it actually was darker than before. It was nearly impossible to tell, though, and he could’ve just been imagining things, except—no, it  _ was _ darkening, nighttime shadows turning from indistinct grey-black to pitch, to void, to a growing hole of emptiness in the fabric of reality. It was rising, too, darkness elongating and coalescing into a humanoid silhouette.

Red dropped the fire rod. It hit the ground with a seemingly deafening clatter, shattering the silence, and he blurted out, “ _ Shadow?! _ ”

An achingly familiar face whipped around, moonlight luminous in wide, wide, eyes. Red stumbled forward, reaching out— 

The figure vanished as if they’d never existed, and Red, once again, found himself alone.

* * *

To be honest, Red genuinely couldn’t tell if he’d been imagining things or not.

No matter how hard he’d searched, Red couldn’t find any trace of Shadow—of the ‘ghost’—left behind. The kitchens had remained empty for the rest of his stakeout, and none of the guards or servants had reported anything strange. Now, in the clear light of day, Red found himself questioning his memory of the night before.

Had it really been Shadow? He’d been  _ dead. _ They’d seen him sacrifice himself to defeat Vaati, seen him dissolve into light, seen him… 

Well.

Red breathed deep, pressing his face into his hands. Maybe it was all just wishful thinking, his own subconscious hopes playing tricks on him. After all, the anniversary was in less than a month. Less than a month, hardly any time at all, until the day that would mark a full year since those fateful events at the Palace of Winds. Princess Zelda had decreed it a holiday, even, and the castle staff were already planning for the great festival that Castle Town wanted to hold. 

Maybe, Red thought, he’d just had Shadow on the mind because of that and because of Vio’s research, and the nighttime darkness had only shown him what he’d wanted to see.

Yes, Red decided. That made sense. That was a plausible explanation that Vio could’ve gotten behind, which meant it was probably right. Vio wasn’t here at the moment, having been convinced into taking a nap, but Red imagined his voice, his calm, measured diction placing every syllable exactly where it was needed. Things made sense when he said them, because somehow, he always managed to choose the right words to help people understand.

Red’s mind wandered to the other Links. Vio might’ve said that it was Red’s subconscious desires that had manifested into the apparition he’d seen, but what about Green and Blue? 

They’d probably just agree with Vio, actually, with added fussing over whether Red was getting enough sleep if he was starting to imagine things like this. Green clucked more than a cucco whenever he was worried, and he’d almost certainly talk to Princess Zelda and their father to lighten Red’s workload until he felt better. Blue’s fussing, meanwhile, tended to be on the subtler side, but was no less present. He’d grumble about Red getting all worked up over nothing while simultaneously keeping him stuffed full of warm soup and soft bread, refusing to stop his hovering until he was sure Red was alright.

The thing was, though, Red wasn’t exhausted. He didn’t have a particularly heavy workload, even with two Links and Princess Zelda and their father all away. He’d had time to spend an entire night staking out the kitchens on a ghost rumor! Sure, he didn’t usually stay up all night and it could’ve been sleep deprivation playing tricks on him by the time he’d seen the figure, but, somehow… 

That just didn’t feel right. Red’s gut tugged him in a different direction than his brain, with no way to know which was correct. Logically, he knew it couldn’t have been Shadow he’d seen the previous night because Shadow was dead. Yet, at the same time, he’d been so  _ sure. _ That had been Shadow, standing there in the middle of the kitchens, bundles of dried herbs dangling above him and cooking utensils all around him. Every instinct Red had said that it really had been the fifth Link, despite the logic of its impossibility.

If it really was Shadow, though, how was he alive? How was he here in the castle, almost a full year after they’d all seen him dissolve into light? If he was alive, then where had he been, all this time? What had he been doing?

Why hadn’t he already come home to them?

Maybe, Red considered, he was overthinking this. He tried to channel Vio, and decided to list the facts.

Fact: he had seen a humanoid figure the previous night in the kitchens.

Fact: the figure looked like or at least similar to Shadow.

Fact: he did not know for sure if the figure had actually been Shadow or not.

Fact… no, that was it, there were no more facts. None that he could think of at the moment, anyway.

Red sighed again. This was getting him nowhere. He needed to do something else, get his mind off of all this. Then, tonight, he’d go back and search for the figure he’d seen, ghost or Shadow or not.

Yeah, that sounded like a plan. So: that was precisely what Red did. For the rest of the day, he busied himself helping out wherever he could, firmly Not Thinking about Shadow and the ‘ghost’ and whether or not they were the same. There was no point in tying himself up in knots of this, so he didn’t, and honestly, that even kind of worked.

Then, before he knew it, night approached, and it was nearly time for him to go stake out the kitchens again.

He waited in the same place, keeping himself awake all night, but to no avail. There was no sign of the figure that might’ve been Shadow, no sign of any unusual happenings at all. 

“Must’ve been imagining things,” Red muttered to himself as the sun rose, and tried not to feel too disappointed.

The night after that, Red couldn’t sleep, head too full of memories and what-ifs. Instead of watching the kitchens, though, he found himself wandering the battlements, comforted by the cool night air and the sight of Castle Town spread out beneath him. The guards knew him, nodding as they passed on their rounds, and he nodded back, but was too tired to do anything more. They were busy, anyway.

Red walked for a while, watching the moonlight and the stars, and wished, not for the first time, that he really had seen Shadow back there. If it had been Shadow, then that meant that Vio’s efforts had borne fruit, that the Links’ numbers would be whole at last. That their greatest failure would be fixed, because even though they’d saved the kingdom, Shadow’s sacrifice would always be their greatest regret. Necessary as it might’ve been to defeat Vaati, it still ached, a wound that was only just beginning to scar, and they would feel it for the rest of their lives.

Red sighed. Tipped his face to the sky, idly scanning the rooftops of the spike-sharp towers, and froze at the sight of a familiar silhouette.

_ No, _ he thought.  _ It can’t be. _

But. As Red drew closer, silver moonlight reflected off purple hair and black clothes, Shadow’s smoke-ink hat curling and waving like a living thing. If the image wasn’t real, it certainly did a good job at pretending to be, and without Red’s permission, hope sprang anew in his chest.

First, though, he had to check. He had to make  _ sure. _ Without making the mistake of calling out and spooking the figure like he had before, Red circled around until he was behind where the figure sat, grabbed onto the rough-hewn stone of the tower, and began to climb.

At first, it was easy. The tower wall had enough grips and handholds for him to make his way up with, and he’d climbed trees that were smoother than this. He even managed to be mostly quiet, and hoped the night’s ambient noise would cover up any suspicious rustling or scraping. It was going well, until it wasn’t.

The night was cold, and condensation had crystalized on the slanted roof. He knew, the moment he set his foot on the tile, that he had made a grievous mistake. But he couldn’t get any traction, not with the unexpected slick of frost, and he couldn’t react fast enough to stop. All Red felt was a sickening lurch as he slipped, slid—

Fell.


	3. Shadow

It was a testament to how distracted Shadow was that it took him so long to realize he’d been caught.

Perched on the flat lip of the western guard tower’s roof, Shadow sat beneath the moonlight, eyes closed as the night’s breeze brushed across his skin. It was early enough that his own shadow stayed behind him, wavering like a heat-mirage as he hovered on the boundary between worlds. Shadow, at this moment, was almost more literal shade than substance. It made his form blurred at the edges, indistinct, flickering in and out of realities with the wind.

Eventually, he exhaled a long, quiet sigh, and settled on solidity. Splaying his hands across roof tile as he leaned back, weather-worn texture pressed into his palms, rough and uncomfortable. Jagged edges mixed with newer, cleaner ones, blatant signs of repair from the siege Shadow had led on this castle nearly a year previous. His faint body heat had melted the thin layer of frost beginning to form over the tiles, but he kind of regretted becoming solid, because it was cold and wet and the damp was definitely beginning to soak into his clothes.

Great. That was probably a sign that it was too close to winter to be sitting out on rooftops in the middle of the night, wasn’t it.

For a moment, he wondered why they hadn’t just stripped off all the old tiles completely, since there were clearly more new ones than old, but the answer came almost as soon as he asked the question: they likely hadn’t had the resources. Ganon and Vaati’s forces had ransacked the castle and much of the kingdom, indiscriminately slaughtering whoever got in their way. Many of the craftspeople who’d lived in Castle Town were probably dead, their supplies stolen or burned or otherwise gone.

Shadow took a moment to feel mildly guilty about that. Probably not half as guilty as he was supposed to be feeling, but he couldn’t bring himself to care much about the civilians he vaguely remembered fleeing like ants, who’d seemed tiny and inconsequential from dragonback. At the time, he’d had his orders, and wreaking havoc on the castle—on the brilliant, shining symbol of a world would never be his, could never be his, no matter how much he’d wanted it to be—had been far too tantalizing a target. 

That was then, though, and this was now. Bringing his mind back to the present, Shadow looked out over the city spread below, at the rolling fields beyond and the forests turned black with night. Above, the stars spread bright around the pearl-full moon, and the constant chirp of crickets drifted up to his perch.

Shadow closed his eyes. Leaned back, forcibly relaxing his shoulders. He found himself wishing that the space around him wasn’t nearly so empty, that there were companions to sit beside and lean against and talk to. He wished… 

_ Scrape. _

Shadow whipped around, on his feet in an instant with fingers curled into claws. Only, instead of an attacker sneaking up on him, he turned just in time to see  _ Red _ of all people step on a frosted-over tile, loose his footing, topple back— 

Gravity dragged Red down fast, but Shadow was faster. Conscious thought fled as Shadow’s body threw itself forward on its own, diving arrow-quick because of  _ course _ Red had managed to fall off the back of the tower, the part with nothing but hard ground beneath it.

Later, he’d only remember this moment as a blur of images, sensations, flashes of sense-memory all saturated with terror. The terror, he would remember, had been of the instinctive kind, bone-deep and terrible enough that his mind promptly blocked out everything but the lingering edges of it. All he really knew was that one moment, he was watching Red fall off the edge of the tower roof, and the next, he had his fingers wrapped around Red’s wrist and Red dangling—but safe!—in midair.

…By Din, he  _ never _ wanted to do that again. 

As quickly as the fear had come, though, it morphed into anger, and Shadow didn’t hold back his snarl as he stepped off the roof to fly them both down to the courtyard below. “What,” he snarled as he dropped Red on solid ground, barely managing not to dig his claws into Red’s wrist, “the  _ hell _ were you thinking?!”

Red gaped at him. He did not look nearly as terrified as he should’ve been. 

Shadow waited a beat, then another, and when it was clear no answer was forthcoming, he made a noise of disgust and turned away. He had to let go of Red, but that was fine, he didn’t miss the contact at all. Here, with high walls surrounding them, the darkness was more than thick enough for him to simply fade through— 

“Wait!”

A body hit him from behind, hands wrapping around his torso, pinning him to solidity. Shadow froze in shock.

“Don’t go,” Red said, muffled into the back of his tunic. His breath was warm with life. “Shadow, I’m sorry, don’t go!”

Words failed him. Red… 

What?

Red’s arms tightened around him. “I’m sorry,” Red repeated, and Shadow didn’t know what to do, skin buzzing with the warmth of Red pressed up against his back, rooting him in place. “I didn’t mean—I just wanted to know it was you, I just wanted to know you were real. You’re  _ alive— _ how? How are you here?”

There was a near-imperceptible wobble under Red’s tone, Shadow realized, and immediately had to try very hard not to panic over it. This was not a situation he’d ever prepared for, though in hindsight, that’d been a severe miscalculation. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say?  _ Who the hell knows, definitely not me, I just woke up out of nowhere with weird voices in my head saying ‘good luck’? _

Yeah, that sounded sane.

It wasn’t like he’d ever heard those voices again, either, which made it even harder to tell if Shadow had just imagined it all or not. Weeks into his second chance at life, Shadow was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the moment when it all came crashing down. Now, with Red solid and warm and  _ real _ against him, he found himself bracing for the moment it’d be yanked away, because this felt far too good to be true.

(Was this it? Would he dissolve here, he wondered morbidly, like he’d dissolved before? He still remembered, in a vague, hazy sort of way, how it had felt to have his very being fall apart, evaporating into motes of intangible light. It hadn’t hurt; in fact, it had been almost a relief, a soothing cessation of pain as he had felt himself simply… disappear. Would his second death be the same, or would it hurt, like he’d always imagined a real death would?

That didn’t make him sound any saner, did it.)

“I don’t know,” Shadow rasped after far too long a silence, but he couldn’t take that time back, so he simply forged on. “I just… woke up one day, I guess, and I was alive again.”

Red made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle, and Shadow desperately hoped it wasn’t one. He had no idea how to deal with tears. “I guess it doesn’t really matter right now,” Red muttered, grip tightening. “I’m really glad you’re alive, Shadow.”

Like everything else that had happened during this interaction, Shadow did not know how to respond to this. Dumbly, he blurted out, “You are?”

“Of course I am!” One of Red’s hands, which had been fisted in the front of his tunic, relaxed. At the same moment, the pressure around him eased as Red released him. The contact wasn’t gone for long, though; Red had only let go in order to move around Shadow, shifting positions to bring them face to face. Quieter, with a twisted-up, bewildered expression that Shadow really could not deal with, he asked, “Why would you think I wasn’t?”

“I was dying,” Shadow rasped, remembering hard stone under his back and mirror shards all around, his life draining away with every jagged piece. “You’re supposed to be nice to dying people. I think. Doesn’t gotta be real.” 

That had been the wrong thing to say. Red’s expression twisted further, going from bewildered to devastated, and oh no Shadow absolutely could not deal with this. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't take the words back, and anyway, they were true. Even he knew that, and he’d only been alive for maybe a handful of months before kicking it. 

“You’re  _ wrong, _ ” Red snapped, surprisingly fierce. “It was real, Shadow, everything we said that day was real. You’re one of us! So, just…” his voice softened, then. “Come back? Please? We really miss you. Especially Vio; he’s been searching nonstop for a way to bring you back ever since we defeated Ganon.”

Shadow blinked. Vio had been  _ what? _

“I tried to kill him,” Shadow said dumbly. “I—I tried to kill all of you, so many times. And Vio’s still—?”

“Every day,” Red answered, accented with a sharp nod. “He’s gone on so many research trips in the past year, I swear he’s read every book of magic in the kingdom. Did you really not notice? You’ve been hiding in the castle for a while, haven’t you?”

“Only about a week,” Shadow corrected. “And Vio didn’t… wait, is that why he’s been so tired all the time? He’s been going out on these ‘research trips’?”

Red sighed. “Well, he got back from his last one a few weeks ago, but he’s been spending almost every waking hour in the library since. He’s been working himself to exhaustion.” 

Shadow couldn’t hide a flinch at that, shoulders drawing up tight with guilt. He hadn’t known that. How hadn’t he known that?

(…If he was going to be honest with himself, it probably had something to do with how he’d found himself avoiding the library, the archery range, the places where he knew Vio would frequent. He’d told himself it was because he was being smart to avoid more populated areas where he’d be more likely to be discovered, but… really, he’d just been avoiding Vio.)

“I didn’t know,” Shadow muttered. “I— _ why? _ ”

“Because he misses you!” Red exclaimed. “We all do, but Vio—you were friends, weren’t you? Real friends. And Vio feels bad about the whole, you know, trying to smash the Dark Mirror thing, because you were friends and he didn’t want to hurt you. But we also had to save Hyrule, so Vio… he made a hard choice.” A pause. “He talks about you a lot, you know. So much that it feels like we all know you too, even though we only ever really met when we were fighting.”

…Oh.

Shadow didn’t know how to respond to that, didn’t know how to find the words. It turned out he didn’t have to, though. Red kept going, kept talking, and if he could tell how stuck Shadow was on the idea of Vio feeling guilty about Shadow’s sacrifice, he didn’t show it.

“Please, Shadow.” Red’s hands gripped Shadow’s arms, not hard enough to bruise, but secure enough that Shadow would have to put effort in to get free. “Come back?"

Shadow wet his lips, nerves drying out his mouth. For a moment, he thought of refusing, considered wrenching himself away and running as far and as fast as he could, but— 

No. He didn’t want that. He was selfish, and he  _ wanted, _ wanted everything that Red was offering him. 

Shadow had spent a week skulking around the castle because after waking up in a random shrine in the middle of the woods, he’d spent enough time traveling to Hyrule Castle to overhear the general public’s opinion on him. It wasn’t, to say the least, positive. By the time he’d arrived at the Castle, he’d half-expected to be discovered and chased out by an angry mob the moment he stepped foot inside, but he’d also been too close to turn back without at least trying to find the Links.

So, he’d slipped in and told himself that he’d just check to see how they were doing, and then… something. He hadn’t planned that far ahead, to be honest. He’d entertained some vague thoughts about disappearing into the wilderness forever, but then he’d realized that only Red and Vio were present and he’d thought,  _ alright, I’ll stick around until the others get back. It won’t be much longer, and then I can leave. _

(Being able to spend more time reassuring himself that at least two of the Links had beaten back the darkness successfully and were safe and secure had nothing to do with it.)

Shadow’s name was a curse on the lips of Hyrule, after all, and he’d quickly realized that acceptance from the Links had been platitudes for his deathbed. And that was fine, he’d gotten over it, he’d been incandescently angry at first but it was  _ fine. _ He understood. Nobody really wanted a shade around, and he’d been a fool for falling for it.

Only, now, here Red was, telling him that all of that was wrong.

Shadow closed his eyes, breathing in the cool night air. It was too good to be true, and yet… 

Well. He hadn’t gotten this far without taking risks. And he was far too selfish to refuse.

“Alright,” Shadow rasped, opening his eyes. “I’ll come back.”


	4. Vio

For the first time in far too long, Vio woke up refreshed.

After a moment of groggy blinking at the ceiling, Vio gradually rose out of the fog of sleep. Had he slept in again? He must have—sunlight slanted through the window at a much stronger angle than he was used to, bathing the room in honey-gold light. Normally, he rose at a time much closer to dawn, taking advantage of the early hour to relax or get some work done. Exhaustion had evidently overridden his internal clock for the third time in as many days, proving again that Red had been right about him overworking himself.

Red would probably be smug about that, now. Vio couldn’t bring himself to feel annoyed, though, because he really had needed the rest, and Red had only been looking out for him.

Still. Sighing regretfully at the imminent loss of cozy comfort, Vio made himself get out of bed, because sleeping in meant his schedule was off and he’d rather correct that as soon as possible.

After making himself presentable, Vio stepped outside the Links’ quarters with the previous day’s notes in hand. It was still early enough that he could get breakfast rather than a simple snack to tide him over until lunch, and then, he could go back to the library. Red had probably eaten already, since he hadn’t been in their room when Vio had woken up, but Vio could bring him a snack as both thanks and apology for being snappish a few days previous, when Red had pushed him into resting.

Except, when Vio asked a passing servant where Red was, they didn’t know.

_ Weird, _ Vio thought at first, but not much more. Maybe Red had simply gotten an earlier start than normal and was out in the kennels or something, spending time with the latest litter of puppies. Someone who worked closer to that area of castle would surely know where he was, then.

…Or maybe not, as Vio discovered when, contrary to expectation, no one in either the kennels or the stables (Red’s other favored haunt) had seen him. At all. 

This, Vio reflected as he left, pace distinctly brisker than it had been before, was mildly worrying. Mildly, because no alarm had been raised and Red could take care of himself, but still worrying, because Vio was used to knowing where the people he cared about were and it unsettled him when he didn’t.

Red was probably fine, though. Chances were, Vio would find him behind a shed or something trying to coax a stray cat into petting range, or in the kitchens where he could make sad eyes at the cooks and get early tastes of the food. Vio was worrying for nothing, most likely. It would be fine.

Then, “Sorry, haven’t seen him,” was the general consensus Vio received from the kitchens, and his worry kicked itself up a notch. 

_ This is fine, _ Vio told himself, because he was a calm, rational, and composed being who definitely would not panic about this. There wasn’t even anything to panic about, really—there was every chance that Red had simply gone down to the market or wandered into the woods for wildflowers or something, and he’d come waltzing back soon enough. Vio could go up to the library to resume his research and wait for Red to find him, and everything would be fine. 

…So, why couldn’t Vio bring himself to leave?

Dragging a hand down his face, Vio sighed. He knew why; he wouldn’t call himself a particularly possessive person, but he did like to know where the other Links were, and it put him on edge when he didn’t. If he thought about it, he could probably trace that back to lingering aftershocks from those days when they’d been separated, then the abruptness of Shadow’s sacrifice to defeat Vaati. They’d never been able to truly clear the air between them, and Vio knew it was irrational to fear the same with any of the others, but—

Well. He knew himself well enough to understand that his mind wasn’t rational, some days, and there was little he could do but deal with it.

“Goddesses,” he muttered under his breath, less a prayer and more an oath, already thinking of where else Red was likely to be. Maybe the storage houses? With winter coming on sooner rather than later, securing the castle’s food supply was paramount. Red may have gone to help move supplies or do inventory or any number of other tasks.

That line of thought led Vio to wonder if Red had decided to go help with the harvest on the farms that surrounded the city, since they’d never turn down an extra hand at this time of the year. But, no, he would’ve left a note or something if he’d planned on going out that far. Vio could hold off on checking the farms until he made certain that Red wasn’t anywhere in the castle or in town.

“ _ Goddesses, _ ” Vio muttered again, and sighed.

Red was not in the storage houses. He wasn’t in any of the granaries, either, and no one had seen him all morning. With real worry creeping into his gut, Vio ranged out further, checking the training fields and the gardens and—

Those were empty, too. Red wasn’t there, Red wasn’t anywhere Vio looked, but it was fine, there was almost certainly a rational explanation for it. Vio hadn’t even checked the castle thoroughly yet—he hadn’t gone to the upper floors, for one, and there were more enough out-of-the-way nooks and crannies riddling the walls for Red to have disappeared into. Maybe he was exploring the servants’ passages again; it certainly wouldn’t be the first time Vio found him emerging from an unlikely spot in the castle, far from his usual haunts.

Taking the stairs faster than he probably should’ve, especially given how narrow the stairwells were, Vio began a methodical sweep of the castle. He gained some odd looks as he passed, but it wasn’t urgent enough to alert anyone, so he simply nodded in greeting and kept going. 

First floor—clear.

Second floor—clear.

Third floor— 

Huh.

Vio paused. Backtracked. Narrowed his eyes at the disturbed dust in front of what should’ve been a long-disused storage room. The prints left in it weren’t perfect, but when Vio carefully checked their size, his own foot hovering just above the suspiciously boot-shaped space, they matched.

But what was Red doing in an old storage room, of all places?

Frowning to himself, Vio knocked on the door. “Red?”

A pause. Then, rustling, a muffled  _ thump, _ and hushed words. 

Vio blinked. That… wasn’t like Red. The concern that had been abating returned in full force. “Are you alright?”

Another thump, then more words too low for Vio to catch, but it sounded almost like a hissed conversation. Vio’s frown deepened. Were there multiple people in that room? If so, was Red even one of them?

Damn. Maybe he should’ve brought his sword, after all. 

Stepping back, Vio put his notes down (he hadn’t this search would take this long, to be honest, so he’d kept his papers with him) and drew the dagger he kept in his boot. Quick steps positioned himself just beside the door, out of sight of anyone inside. He hoped the door wasn’t locked. Taking a breath, he reached for the handle— 

“Vio!” Red cried, bursting out, and he was fine, he wasn’t hurt at all. In fact, he was beaming, a bright, sunburst grin stretched across his face. His clothes were rumpled like he’d slept in them, creased fabric lines still pressed into his cheek, but he was fine, he was fine, he was fine.

More relieved than he’d have liked to admit, Vio quickly sheathed his dagger and stepped away from the wall, toward Red, who whipped around to face him. 

“What were you  _ doing? _ ” Vio demanded, perhaps a little harsher than he’d meant to, but from the way Red softened, the fear driving his words seemed apparent enough. “Where were you all morning? Did you  _ sleep  _ up here?”

Red’s grin, if anything, grew wider. Around it were hints of tension, but genuine happiness overlaid them, so Vio decided to save figuring out the tension for later. “Oh! I guess I did, huh? Sorry, I didn’t realize it’d been so long. But hey, you’ll never guess who I ran into last night!”

Vio sighed. Now that he’d found Red, the frantic, thrumming energy beneath his skin that had fueled his search was fading, dissipating, leaving his muscles watery and weak in their wake. Frankly, he didn’t care about whatever new friend Red had made, only that Red had disappeared in an uncharacteristic fit of distraction and had apparently fallen asleep in an old storage room. At least he’d been alright, though. If nothing else, he was alright.

In light of that, Vio found himself… still not caring much about Red’s new friend, to be honest, but willing to indulge him.

“Who?” Vio asked, anticipating—well, he didn’t know, but maybe someone from Rune’s village, or one of the staff who’d survived the initial attack on the castle. Someone that Red knew but hadn’t anticipated seeing again, or, at least, not for a long time.

“Come see!” Red chirped, pulling the door open wider and grabbing Vio’s wrist to tug him into the room. When Vio didn’t move fast enough for his liking, he made an impatient noise and tugged harder. “Come on, come on!”

“Okay, okay.” Vio let himself be pulled into the storage room, which, being windowless, was dark enough that he couldn’t get a sense of how large it actually was. At first, he didn’t understand what Red wanted him to see as he stared, his eyes adjusting from the sunlit hallway, until— 

Movement. A patch of black shifted, rose, and luminous eyes turned to face him.

“Hey, Vio.” Shadow waved, his smile crooked and nervous but edged with painful, aching hope. “Surprise?”


	5. Red

In Red’s defense, he hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

Even after Shadow had agreed to come back to them the previous night, Red had found himself unwilling to leave. He couldn’t shake the fear that Shadow would vanish the moment he turned his back, turning to smoke in the wind and motes of light in the air, so he simply… hadn’t left. To his relief, Shadow hadn’t protested too much when Red had followed him to the empty storage room he’d apparently been camping out in, even, which made Red suspect Shadow was lonelier than he’d like to admit.

It was alright now, though. He’d agreed to come back to the Links, and they wouldn’t let Shadow be lonely anymore.

Until they were all back together again, though, Red just wanted to keep an eye on him. Just in case.

(He’d never forget how it had felt to watch Shadow’s end. That memory would be there, forever, the same way he’d always remember flame-filled woods and the Temple of Darkness. The same way he’d always remember spiraling stairs and wind that  _ screamed _ , shrieking like a falcon through a furious sky. Those memories were seared into his mind for good, Red knew, and maybe time would soften their edges, but… not yet.

Not yet.)

Really, though, Red hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He and Shadow had gotten to talking, and while they were both stumped on the precise mechanism of how Shadow had returned to life, they honestly hadn’t been too fussed about it. Shadow was alive, after all, and there was no indication he wouldn’t stay that way. So, Red had found himself catching Shadow up on all that he’d missed in the year since Vaati and Ganon’s defeat, and the candle Shadow had lit burned lower and lower without either of them noticing, and Red had closed his eyes just for a second, just to rest for a brief, brief moment.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up to Vio calling his name, he and Shadow curled up on the floor of the storage room in a nest of blankets and clumps of straw. A part of Red’s mind registered that they’d probably been stolen from the stable lofts, while the rest of him rapidly replayed the events of the previous night and thought  _ wait, did that happen? _

Red turned to look at Shadow, who had a thin trail of drool tracking down from the corner of his mouth. By the dim light that eked its way in from the gap between door and frame, Red couldn’t see him well, but he didn’t have to see him to know he was there. Red could feel the warmth of another body sharing space close to his, smell the (unappealing, to be honest) scent of Shadow’s unwashed hair, hear the faint sigh of Shadow’s breath. If he focused, he could make out a faint rise and fall, rhythmic, comforting.

Outside, Vio called for him again, louder and closer.  _ Shit, _ Red thought belatedly, shocking himself with the harshness of the word, but he didn’t have time to think much more on it, because  _ shit. _ He’d fallen asleep. It was almost certainly morning by now, and the fact that Vio was apparently up here looking for him meant that he’d fallen asleep for long enough to be missed, and—and—

Red stopped himself.  _ Breathe. In, count, hold, out. In, count, hold out. _ Panicking wouldn’t help the situation. 

Beside him, Shadow stirred, making a grumbling little  _ mrrr _ noise like the cats that frequented the granaries. The luminous eyes that blinked open a moment later did nothing to reduce that comparison. “W’as happ’ning?” 

“It’s Vio,” Red whispered, not quite sure why he was whispering, but maybe it had something to do with the instinctive  _ I’m not supposed to be in here _ feeling he had from sleeping in an unused storage room. “He’s looking for me. I guess it’s morning.”

Shadow blinked, words visibly taking the time to process. “Wait,” he said, suddenly sounding much more awake, “it’s  _ what? _ ”

“It’s Vio,” Red repeated, scrambling to his feet. He was still wearing his boots, he realized, and the rest of his clothes, which were no doubt hopelessly rumpled. “He’s looking for me. He probably—it’s probably because I fell asleep up here, so he doesn’t know where I am.”

“ _ Shit, _ ” Shadow said, with feeling.

Red, who’d realized his hat had fallen off at some point and was hunting for it via Fire Rod-cast light, paused. Aware of his own hypocrisy, though he and Shadow had likely cursed for very different reasons, he asked, “You know that’s not a bad thing, right?”

“I know!” Shadow replied. “I just—he’s—” an incoherent noise of badly-suppressed panic. “—I’m not ready!”

“You agreed to come back last night, though!” Red whisper-exclaimed, now confused. Shadow had seemed on board with the idea before. What had changed?

Another call of Red’s name bounced off the stone walls. Vio was close.

“Yeah, but I didn’t expect him at literally first thing in the mornin’!” Shadow whisper-hissed back. “I’ve been awake for, like, thirty seconds!”

Oh. That was fair. And, judging by Shadow’s wild-eyed expression yet half-asleep, expression, he wasn’t nearly the early riser that Red was. “…You’re right. Sorry. I didn’t mean to spring it on you like this.”

Shadow snorted, opened his mouth, and interrupted himself with a jaw-cracking yawn. Scrubbing a hand over his eyes, he muttered, “Whatever. May as well get it over with, right?”

He tried to sound flippant, but Red caught the undercurrents of uncertainty beneath it, the faint waver that belied his nerves. Shoulders bowstring-taut, jaw stiff—even as barely visible as he was in the dim glow of Red’s Fire Rod, Red could tell that Shadow wasn’t confident in his reception.

Red opened his mouth. Closed it again, and mentally apologized to Vio as another, worried-sounding call echoed down the hallway. “Look,” he said after a moment, “if you’re not ready yet… I understand. I can go out and tell Vio that I was looking for secret passageways and lost track of time or something, or—I dunno. Something. But you don’t have to meet him yet if you don’t want to. We can wait.” 

Shadow blinked at him, clearly baffled. “What?” 

“It’s not that I don’t want you to come back to us,” Red added quickly, because that wasn’t it at all. “I do! We all do! But I understand if you want to do it, you know, more on your own terms? Instead being pushed into it really fast because I lost track of time and made Vio come looking for me? Sorry, it’s just—you seem nervous, and now I feel bad for accidentally springing this on you, and—”

“ _ Red. _ ” Shadow cut him off before he could ramble any further, loud enough that Red glanced at the door with bated breath to check if Vio had heard. Given that Vio had initially bypassed the room and Red could hear his steps from near the other end of the hall, though, it seemed that he hadn’t.

“Sorry, what?” Red asked after he confirmed that Vio wasn’t about to barge in, belatedly realizing that Shadow had said something. “What did you say?”

Shadow inhaled an audible breath. “I said it’s fine. Seriously, I—it’s fine.” He grimaced, dim light reflecting off teeth just a hint too sharp to be natural. “You’re  _ sure _ Vio doesn’t hate me?”

“He really, really doesn’t,” Red assured him.

They could hear Vio making his way back down the hall, now, drawing closer and closer by the second. Red found himself watching the door with his heart in his throat, pulse racing, gearing up to open the door and finally bring Shadow back into the family. One more glance back to really make sure Shadow was fine with this—

Two knocks, shockingly loud after the hushed whispers of Red and Shadow’s conversation. 

Red tried not to jump out of his skin and felt he only half-succeeded, but whatever Vio said fell to the wayside as Shadow spooked far more dramatically. Jerking back, Shadow all but threw himself back into his nest of blankets, out of the faint circle of light illuminated by the Fire Rod, and Red reached instinctively after him.

“Shadow!” he whispered. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know!” Shadow whispered back, audibly strained. “Just stall him for, like, a second? I’ll be fine!”

“Are you  _ sure? _ ”

“No, but hiding ain’t gonna solve anything, so just give me a sec to get my head on straight. I swear, I’ll be fine. Go, before he breaks the door down!”

Damn. Shadow was right; Vio absolutely would break the door down if he thought it necessary, and from the silence on the other side of it, he knew they were in there. 

_ Alright, _ Red thought to himself.  _ Alright. Time to get moving. _

So. Red drew up all his happiness and eager anticipation, because Shadow was  _ alive _ and he was  _ here _ and that was nothing short of a miracle. He let those emotions bubble up and overflow, and he smiled, and then,  _ then— _

He pushed open the door. “Vio!”


	6. Shadow

Oh, dear sweet goddesses. This was not anything that Shadow had been prepared for.

“ _ Shadow? _ ” Vio had whispered, his voice all jagged like broken glass, and the next thing Shadow knew, Vio had rushed forward and crashed into him and they’d both gone down. Shadow, too startled to react, found himself wheezing on the floor with Vio wrapped around him and the wind knocked out of him, eyes adjusting to the sudden light that flooded in from the hall.

“Hi,” Shadow wheezed, more pitifully than he’d have liked to admit. Had Vio put on muscle since they’d last seen each other? It certainly felt like it. “Uh. Guess that means you’re happy t’ see me?”

The reaction Vio had to that was less a verbal reply and more another, tighter squeeze, as if he thought that letting Shadow go would make him disappear. Face buried in Shadow’s shoulder, Shadow could feel his every breath, and his fingers dug into the back of Shadow’s tunic.

“…I’ll take that as a yes,” Shadow ventured, faux-flippant because right now, it was either that or do something ridiculously sappy, like burst into tears. Good tears, probably, but he wasn’t sure, because he had a very large amount of emotions all fighting each other in a confusing tangle in his head. So. Flippant was a safer way to act, right now. 

(Normally, anger and bluster worked for him to fall back on when he didn’t know how to feel, but—no. Not with Vio. Never again with Vio.)

“ _ Shadow, _ ” Vio rasped, voice suspiciously hoarse. “You’re—you’re  _ alive. _ How?”

“I don’t know,” Shadow sighed, preparing to rehash the same story he’d gone through with Red the night before. “I just woke up in some weird shrine one day, I dunno how it happened.”

“Wait.” Vio lifted his head and drew back slightly, eyes wide. “A shrine?”

“I guess?” Shadow thought back to fire and water and a gentle, twisting breeze, ghosting over the stone-wrought symbols of the goddesses. “Something like that. I dunno, but I woke up and there were voices in my head, telling me that I had a second chance. And I figured, okay, what the hell, but I guess it’s better than being dead.”

“Much better than being dead,” Red agreed, just behind Vio. With a laugh, he moved forward and threw his arms around both of them, hooking his chin over Vio’s shoulder. “I know I said this a lot already, but, Shadow—I’m really, really glad you’re back.”

“Yes,” Vio agreed. “As am I. And, as for how you’ve returned… was the shrine hidden deep in a forest, somewhere in the northwest region of Hyrule?”

Shadow blinked. “Uh, yeah, actually. How’d you know that?” 

Vio exhaled, a ghost of a laugh. Tone edged with wry humor, he dropped his head back onto Shadow’s shoulder, his hair tickling Shadow’s jaw. “I prayed there,” he admitted. “On the way back from a trip to one of the outlying villages, just a few weeks ago. But nothing happened, and it was an old shrine that I’d only heard of in passing, and—” he laughed again, rough. “Of all the things,  _ that _ was what finally worked?”

He didn’t sound upset, just disbelieving, the sort of disbelieving that meant  _ thank the goddesses  _ and _ I never expected that to work but I’m so glad it did. _ As such, Shadow felt safe enough relaxing a little more into Vio and Red’s holds, because Red was right. Vio had been trying to bring him back, the Links had wanted him back in their lives.

Shadow, honestly, felt more relieved than he could put into words.

Then, what Vio had actually said caught up to him. 

“Hold on,” he exclaimed, “you mean I got resurrected through actual,  _ literal _ divine intervention?! Even though—”

He cut himself off.  _ Even though I’m a Dark World shade that Ganon created? _

“Even though what?” Red asked.

“Nothing,” Shadow replied, probably too quickly. “Just didn’t expect that, ‘s all.”

“…Mm.” Vio clearly didn’t believe him, but let it slide anyway, which Shadow found himself grateful for. Hugging him a little tighter, Vio murmured, “I’m glad the goddesses answered our prayers. You deserve a second chance, Shadow.”

Shadow swallowed hard, a lump forming in his throat as heat prickled behind his eyes. “Yeah,” he managed after a moment. “I’m glad, too.”

* * *

**_Two Weeks Later_ **

“This was a bad idea,” Shadow said.

“No, it’s not,” Green sighed. “It’ll be fine, trust me.”

_ It’s not you I don’t trust, _ Shadow almost retorted, but he swallowed down the words, because he’d said them already and they’d had this conversation before. Several times, in fact, which was why Green sounded so exasperated, and why Blue was snickering at Shadow’s mild panic, and why Vio only looked amused. Red, who was clearly the only nice one and thus Shadow’s favorite, gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder.

“It’ll be fine!” Red chirped, all but radiating optimism. Shadow had no idea how he managed to make himself look so young and genuine, and they literally had the exact same face. “Zelda will understand, and once she’s on our side, Dad will be, too. Seriously, it’ll be  _ fine. _ ”

Shadow, remembering his last, less-than-positive encounters with both their father and Princess Zelda, was much less optimistic. 

“Things went fine when Blue and Green came back,” Vio pointed out, bumping his shoulder companionably. “This’ll be fine, too.”

“But it’s  _ Princess Zelda, _ ” Shadow hissed, the end of his hat curling in on itself. “And Captain Laenkir!”

Green squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “You really, really don’t have to call Dad that, you know.”

Shadow had been told this before. Shadow did not care, because unlike what Green kept insisting, he didn’t have a dad. He wasn’t like the other Links. He was a Dark World being literally drawn from the shadow of the Four Sword hero, his life bound to the Dark Mirror’s power, with the void where that had been now patched with a divine miracle or something. He didn’t really know how it worked, but he was certain that no ordinary hylian man had ever been involved in the process, which meant that he could call the other Links’ father ‘Captain Laenkir’ all he wanted.

“Look, Shadow,” Vio sighed, apparently realizing that this conversation would go nowhere unless he steered it onto a different road. “It’s going to be fine. No matter what happens, we’ll stick with you, alright? But it’s not going to be as bad as you think it is.” A pause. “And they’re here, anyway, so there’s not much point in worrying.”

Shadow’s head whipped around to watch the road. “They’re  _ what? _ ”

At Vio’s words, the rest of the Links had swiveled to face the same direction, craning their necks down the road to Castle Town. After a moment, Red gave a small cry and hopped up a little on his toes, practically bouncing in place. “Yeah, they’re back! Look, look, you can see the horses!”

“Oh,” Shadow said, followed by a string of other words that made Blue outright laugh and Green visibly send up a quick prayer for strength. 

Shadow couldn’t keep himself from hovering a little, though, just giving himself a few extra feet of elevation. Sure enough, he could indeed see horses walking up the road, the flash of armor heralding mounted knights. As they drew nearer, it became clear that the number of riders could only be part of Princess Zelda’s entourage, all of them arranged protectively around a carriage. And, at the head of the procession, Shadow glimpsed a familiar face, proud and stern with Hyrule’s symbol emblazoned across his chest.

Huh. They had the same eyes.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Green yelled, and then the Links were pouring out of the gatehouse and moving to meet the last members of their family, jolting Shadow out of his thoughts. He couldn’t help but hang back a moment, still uncertain— 

A hand closed around his, pulling him along. Shadow could’ve dug his heels in if he really didn’t want to go, but… 

No. No more running. No more hiding. He’d promised both himself and the other Links that two weeks ago, and he would keep his word.

“Come on, Shadow!” Red cried, and Shadow breathed deep, gripped Vio’s hand back, and went.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and I really hope you liked it!
> 
> Feel free to come find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DarkenedScales) for fandom stuff [Wordpress](https://darkscales.wordpress.com/) for original fiction! I also have a [Pillowfort](https://pillowfort.io/DarkScales) and a [Tumblr,](http://darkscaleswriter.tumblr.com/) though I'm less active on those these days.


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